As a former football player people ask me all the time, what it is like to play professional football. Everyone wants to know what the experience is like; who was the best coach, what’s it like to tackle so and so, who was the best running back you played against, who was the best quarterback etc. etc etc. Quite honestly it all is a big blur. And no, the blur is not just from all the collisions into three hundred plus pound linemen, (although that did have a lot to do with it), but the blur is because the time goes by so fast. One day you are a wide-eyed green rookie, and the next day you are a grizzled old vet. And in the middle is two lifetimes worth of experiences both on and off the field. Who can remember it all.

So of course my boy at BDL Sports asked me to try to remember. He asked me to write about what a player is doing to prepare for camp at this time of year, about a month out. C’mon, its been 5 or 6 years since I been to a camp. Did you really want my thoughts on this? He probably didn’t even want to write about this. It’s just that basketball season is over and being in the middle of a 162 game season, baseball is boring right about now. Tiger is hurt so who is going to watch golf now. And are there any other sports to talk about; Tennis? Boxing? Mixed Martial Arts? Nascar? Well just put it this way, I agreed to write something.

What is a player doing right now, about a month or so, give or take a week, from camp. Well different guys have different ways they approach camp. And also, depending on what stage you are in your career will dictate a great deal how you use this time before training camp. I remember as a rookie all I did was work out. I was an eighth round draft pick, so I had better been working out. Lifting, running, stretching, lifting some more. Then more running. Hell I worked out, running all the way up the jet way to get on the plane to go to camp. The game is so much faster from college to the pros that he better be able to keep up. Oh, and as a rookie don’t bother going over those plays they gave you during mini camp. The playbook they have for camp is three or four times bigger, although sometimes with nothing in it but stuff to confuse you. So as a rookie you have to use this time to make sure you are physically prepared. You may take a two or three day break just before you are leaving to go to camp, but that’s just because you have been busting your butt so hard working out prior to that.

For a second, third or fourth year guy you know what to expect now, so now its all about the mind. You have been through at least one camp and a season so you should know what you have to do. Me, I wanted to take my game to the next level so now you start to visualize plays, how to play certain defensive calls and making plays. It’s not too intense, just as you are working out you are thinking about things you will be doing on the field. It’s a difficult time of the year too because you know this is the last month or so you have to have fun before you are “locked up” for about a month, and you have to ask yourself some tough questions: “Should I go out again tonight?” “Am I clubbing too much before camp?” “How late to stay up because I do have to workout in the morning?” “How much should I …..?” Well you can fill in the blank on that last question. But anyway these are some hard decisions for some twenty something year old guys to make and you just have to try and find a balance.

Now for the five to ten year vet, this time of year is old hat. When I was a player around this time there was nothing you could tell me about football that I didn’t know. I was in tune with my body and I knew how to get it prepared for camp and the rigors of a season. Mentally, I knew what I had to do on the field also and I could easily visualize what I had to do, sometimes to the exact step. Now the only difficult part now was if you had a new coach with a new system either because your old coach got fired or you went to a new team as a free agent. You didn’t worry about that though, because at this age you could easily get to know your assignments during the month or so of camp. And besides, defensive plays would usually be the same or similar, except if you had some wanna be “genius” coordinator who tried to rewrite the rules of defensive football (see Ron Lynn). Also, off the field concerns were not a big issue either because by now you pretty much knew what you could or could not do. And if you stayed out late partying or whatever, you knew you either had to suck it up and get up and work out, or move your workout back and suffer in the mid day hot sun. But, you did what you had to do.

Finally the 11+ year vet. For me, when I hit this age I seriously started to question two things. First, is there really a need for training camp, especially seeing as though football had practically become a year around “job”. My first few years in the league I only spent three days in Buffalo in the off season, and that was for mini camp. That was it. I had my full off season at home in Los Angeles away from football so about this time of year you are looking forward to getting back out on the field again and hitting somebody. The second question I asked was what the hell am I still doing. No seriously, I enjoyed my years in the league tremendously, but my last couple of years it became just that much harder to get “up” for camp. You no longer see the need for camp or I should say such a long camp. Two weeks is enough. I still prepared, maybe even more so, because as an older player I made sure I was in top shape. But it was difficult. And as most people will tell you, it is easy to play in games so you never dread that, but when you start dreading going to camp or practice for your sport that is the time to call it quits.